What Happened When Google Asked 5,600 Employees About How They Work?

Recently, Google published data on its research on ‘Working together when we’re not together’.

With over 10,000 employees working across 150 cities, it probably comes as no surprise that they have offices in more than 50 countries. As you can imagine, it means lots of coordination and logistics and communication!

Veronica Gilrane, the manager of Google’s People Innovation Lab, wanted to learn more about the productivity and effectiveness of Google’s distributed team model. As a result, Gilrane sent a survey our to 5000+ Google employees and held focus groups with hundreds of employees across the world.

The survey measured well-being, performance, and connectedness. The results were promising with Gilrane stating “We were happy to find no difference in the effectiveness, performance ratings, or promotions for individuals and teams whose work requires collaboration with colleagues around the world versus Googlers who spend most of their day to day working with colleagues in the same office.”

She further continued; “Well-being standards were uniform across the board as well; Googlers or teams who work virtually find ways to prioritize a steady work-life balance by prioritizing important rituals like a healthy night’s sleep and exercise just as non-distributed team members do.”

While Google is a great example of remote working practices, it’s not without its challenges;

“We did hear from Googlers that working with colleagues across the globe can make it more difficult to establish connections—in many senses of the word. Coordinating schedules across time zones and booking a conference room for a video chat takes more logistical brainpower than dropping by a coworkers desk for a meeting over coffee. “

Google conducted the research to make it easier for teams to effectively and happily work together, no matter where they are based.

If you’re interested in hiring remote workers, but are unsure where to start, we can help. Please contact us.